Art on the water

I was intrigued to read about a unique boat that's just been officially launched in England.  The Telegraph reports:

A boat crafted from 1,200 pieces of wood, including fragments from the Mary Rose and Jimi Hendrix's guitar, will be launched today as part of a national art project to mark the Olympics.

Created as a "floating collage of memories", The Boat Project has been funded by the Arts Council England's Artists Taking the Lead project as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

The artists who came up with the idea, Gary Winters and Gregg Whelan, known as Lone Twin, visited 20 locations across the region seeking contributions to be used in the building of the craft.

They also invited members of the public to bring wooden pieces to the West Sussex boatyard where it was built. The only criteria was that the items were made from wood and had a story behind them.

The diverse contributions include a plank from the London 2012 velodrome, several hockey sticks, a Victorian policeman's truncheon, large crates used to transport gold as British securities to Canada during the Second World War and a hairbrush used by a make-up artist at Pinewood Studios in the 1960s.

. . .

Mr Winters said that a sense of fun flowed through the whole design and construction of the boat.

He said: "The call-out was for objects which had a significance and a story, and people responded to that in all sorts of ways and we were given some lovely, lovely things, personal and emotional things.

"It's very difficult to be very serious with an aardvark and a coat hanger.

. . .

"We had no idea what was going to be given to us and the first question a designer is asked is 'What are you going to make it of?', and I had 1,500 pieces of wood.

"From a design point of view it was a very challenging brief as we were completely in the dark."

There's more at the link, and also at The Boat Project's Web site.  Here's a video of a sailing trial conducted last month.

I have to admit, I'm fascinated by all the odd-shaped bits of wood laminated together to form the boat's outer hull.  I just hope they don't become un-laminated when the boat's at high speed in deep water!





Peter